In order to survive financially ball had to work on the musical telegraph ,but he also continued working on his mecnanciall voice transmitter almost a year later, in march 1876 ,the first words were heard coming throug the phone. On his 29th birthday alexander granam ball resistered his invention with the patent office. And because thay had never seen anything like it before, they registered his invention as' an improvement in telegraphy .the name telephone came later